The aim of the present study was to investigate the antitumor effect of celecoxib (CXB) combined with doxorubicin (DOX) on the subcutaneous xenograft tumor of medullary thyroid carcinoma in nude mice, and to analyze the possible mechanism of action. Nude mice with xenografted medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) were randomly divided into the control, CXB, DOX and DOX plus CXB groups, and the drug treatment was administered for three weeks. It was found that the tumor inhibition rates and the apoptosis index in the treatment groups were higher than in the control group (P<0.01), and that these values were higher in the combination group compared with the single-drug group (P<0.01). DOX alone upregulated the cyclooxygenase-2 and multidrug-resistance 1 expression levels, and the combination of CXB and DOX or CXB alone notably decreased the expression level of the two proteins compared with no treatment. The results of the present study provide evidence that a combination of DOX and CXB is a potential drug candidate for the treatment of MTC.
Keywords: celecoxib; doxorubicin; medullary thyroid carcinoma; xenograft tumor.